Affected by the Vodafone price increase?

Hola amigos. It is I, Len Dastard, retired (and imaginary) Mexican lucha libre turned full time litigation executive. I have just spent two week on the streets of Tijuana helping the Policía Federal keep things in order. Now, I return, and I have been greeted with some rather unsavoury consumer news...

Before delving in to the T&Cs you need to know what the increase is and exactly how it will affect you. You will need to consider the Terms of your individual contract with Vodafone. However, looking at the Terms on their own website, they stipulate:

7. Changing charges and terms

a) We may occasionally change or introduce new charges. If we believe any change in our charges will not disadvantage you, we may include it without telling you. However, if we increase our charges, we’ll give you at least 14 days' notice.

Now, you need to consider their Terms in greater detail. The following is an excerpt taken from their Terms and in particular deals with cancelling your agreement when there are price increases:

11. Ending this agreement

a) Either you or us may end this agreement by giving the other 30 days’ notice in writing. Your notice must include your mobile number and the signature or appropriate security details of the account holder. You must pay the charges during the notice period.

b) You may end this agreement by writing to us if:

- we tell you that there will be an increase in the line-rental charge by more than the increase in the retail price index (worked out as a percentage) since the last line-rental increase and you write to us before the increase applies;
- we increase your charges in the UK which have the effect of increasing your total charges (based on your usage in the previous month) by more than 10% and you write to us before the increase applies; or
- we change this agreement to your significant disadvantage including changing or withdrawing services (we will tell you if this is the case) and you write to us within one month of us telling you about the change. This does not apply if the change or withdrawal relates to services which you can cancel without us ending this agreement.

So, it seems that the all important figure is a 10% increase of your bill based on your previous month's usage. You can check their increases here.

If you are convinced that this price increase will affect your bill over 10%, you should write to Vodafone before 11th October 2011 at this address:

I cannot stress enough how important it is that you are convinced that this increase affects you to the extent that their terms allow you to cancel. Communication providers tend not to think twice about suing customers for balances on unpaid mobile phone contracts. If they let people cancel without adequate reason and not follow it up, they will see many of their customers following suit. Therefore, be entirely convinced that you are able to cancel your contract without penalty and possibly get their unequivocal confirmation that that is definitely the case.

Affected by this increase above 10% or not sure and you would like us to look in to this for you? Get in contact with us - [email protected]

"Communication providers tend not to think twice about suing customers for balances on unpaid mobile phone contracts."
Really Len? I find that is the last thing they actually do. They just sell the debt to a debt collection agency who just send letters and give up eventually.

Yep, Alexis. I have had quite a few people ask me for personal advice after receiving proceedings. Usually though it would be for the more lucrative contracts - £40 a month and just in to the contract. However, as you say, they do send it mostly to a debt collection agency in bulk.

So....
I purchased a contract with them in March.
I had a running contract in parallel with T-Mobile which expires on the 27th September.
I've been using my T-Mobile phone for my calls in bulk.
After the 27th i'll be making my calls on the vodafone phone...... so therefore i can cancel my vodafone contract as my call usage will be much higher going forward?

What are the tariff changes you're talking about please? I've had a search round online but all I can find is something from the Daily Fail (http://bit.ly/o50L6s), but that was back from June earlier this year. Is that the changes you're talking about? Or are there some new ones coming too?

Sorry, ignore my last comment, I hadn't seen the link you'd put it in the main text.
Right, I joined Vodafone earlier this year and I've calculated this new price increase would have affected my bill by various amounts over the past few months:
September: 2.5%
August: 6.5%
July: 3.4%
June: 29.9%
May: 4.9%
I know the contract with Vodafone only allows you to cancel based on whether your previous month's bill would have been increased by 10% or more, but do you think I'd have any chance of being able to cancel in a situation such as mine where some months (well, one month to be precise) is greater than 10% and some months are less? And if Vodafone don't agree, would there be any basis to challenge it in court? As the price change will quite clearly affect me quite significantly, but just not by as much as Vodafone deem sufficient to necessitate cancellation of the contract.
Thanks!

Posted by Len Dastard • September 15, 2011 at 9:20 pm
What is your minimum tariff? Will that increase as a result of the price rises?
£30.65 which is going to £31.
Not a big increase, but i don't think it right to compare the last months charges as going forward i will be hit by much more than 10%.
As i'll be now using this as my main phone

I think Craig, you need to actually consider the tariff as it is - £30.65 which will then increase to £31.
Obviously using the mobile as your main phone is going to hike the price of your bill as there is more usage. No doubt Vodafone will argue that the increase is down to extra usage and not as a result of their increase. If you used it no less and the price shot up by 10% that then would (by their own terms) give you cause to attempt to cancel.
However, there is never any harm in trying to use the extra usage to cancel but be careful that they dont consider you to be cancelling of your own volition and then being responsible for "paying off" the remainder of the contract.

Tristan - I think you are going to struggle to evidence your bills are 10% higher as a result of this increase. As with Craig, are your bills higher as a result of your additional usage or higher (above 10%) as a result of this price increase from Vodafone?

I am a Vodafone pay monthly customer paying £42 a month for 900 minutes, unlimited texts and 1GB of data. I usually exceed my data by 500 MB a month so that would mean an additional £10 a month instead of the current extra £5 I'm forced to pay. This to me seems like I am disadvantaged to the tune of more than 10% a month as they claim 1GB of internet is the maximum they have as part of a contract plan. Do you think I have a good case to cancel. My contract ends on the 26th December.

Hi. Thanks for the information. I pay £30.65 a month. in September my bill overall was £122. I worked out that if it was identical in calls in October, after the price changes, it would be 15% more expensive (not inclu. VAT) I haven't factored in texts, which look to remain about the same given that they are unlimited.
Do I now have a case to terminate my contract? Is there anything else I need to know? Will they ask for my handset back?
Thanks for your help!
Clara

Hi - I just wanted to say that Vodafone's main price increase looks like it's going to be the call rate, 25p > 35p, if you're thinking of leaving to go to another network, Orange and O2 both have the same charge and Virgin are more expensive than this. Usually when one network ups their prices the other networks follow, same when there's a decrease.
I think the real issue is that people are on the wrong tariff if they are paying for calls out of their bundle, make sure you're on a tariff that will cover your usage and you never need to worry about this!

Havent you overlooked
we tell you that there will be an increase in the line-rental charge by more than the increase in the retail price index (worked out as a percentage) since the last line-rental increase and you write to us before the increase applies;
?? What is that percentage?

I'm going to try to cancel based on the data charges - I've checked my usage for the past few months, and I hover around the 720-750mb mark for data, which is 220-250mb over my allowance. If I hit the 250mb, I'd be charged £10 instead of £5 etc.
It isn't concrete, but it's likely. I know this month I'll have certainly exceeded 750mb (so next month I'd be paying £10 extra instead of £5, which is an increase of >10% based on my £36 contract)... I was thinking of sending my letter at the absolute last minute (special delivery on the 10th) so that they'd have to look at September's bill instead of August's... Any idea if this will increase my chances?

[...] are charged £5 for every additional 500Mb. From next month, they will be charged £5 per 250Mb.On the Bitterwallet website, “Richard” said: “I am a Vodafone pay monthly customer paying £42 a month for 900 minutes, unlimited [...]

[...] are charged £5 for every additional 500Mb. From next month, they will be charged £5 per 250Mb.On the Bitterwallet website, “Richard” said: “I am a Vodafone pay monthly customer paying £42 a month for 900 minutes, unlimited [...]

I have been given a reply to Vodafone due to the changes in data allowance.
Hello Lyndsey,
Thank you for contacting Vodafone customer service.
I understand your concern regarding the cancellation of your contract.
As mentioned in our section 7 of our terms and condition, the tarriff charges can be increased by giving notification of 14 days.
You can check the terms and conditions by following the links mentioned below.
I have checked in our system that the price change will not effect your bill by more than 10%.
I would like to inform you that cancellation cannot be actioned on the basis of change in allowances, the change should be on the entire bill.
I would suggest you to check your bill after the price plan change and if it is more than 10% , then we shall look into the matter.
I trust this information is helpful to you.
- My interpritation of the terms and conditions, states that if the changes are going to be of an significant disadvantage to you (section 7) then you are able to cancel under section 11b which states about the 10% rise.
It clearly states this is based on your USAGE for the previous month, so which previous month is that? Is it the previous month to when you recieve the notification, is it the previous month to when the changes take place or the previous month from when you informed them? These terms and conditions are so hazy, and no one at vodafone seems to have a clue, Ive spoken to so many people in CS and some say i am entitled to leave some say im not.
Eg: July bill: I went over on my data allowance 5x so therefore this would have cost me £25 but if the new changes had come into affect i would have been charged £50 that would be a total increase of 87% on my bill, Vodafone are still saying it doesnt affect me because it has nothing to do with usuage yet section 11b states: 11. Ending this agreement ... b) You may end this agreement by writing to us if: ... - we increase your charges in the UK which have the effect of increasing your total charges (based on your usage in the previous month) by more than 10% and you write to us before the increase applies
Im confused. Does anyone have any advice for me it would be greatly appreciated thanks!!

There's a thread on money saving expert about this here - http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=3461193
You can cancel your contract if your bill will increase by 10% or more based on your last months (i.e the last bill you got fromVodafone) usage - it says so in Vodafones terms and conditions.

I've received a phone call today from CEO office he informed me that it is the month previous to when you received the text message and that the data allowance will definitely be taking into account and that people in customer services have made a mistake stating it is only line rental charges. I will have my decision by the end of the week. I advise anyone who is emailing there letter of termination to send it to the CEO email address as they seem to be the only ones who have any idea what is going on!
I've even been credit £15 for incorrect advice I have been receiving in the past week.
I will post my response once they call me back
Hope other people are getting somewhere!

[...] are charged £5 for every additional 500Mb. From next month, they will be charged £5 per 250Mb.On the Bitterwallet website, "Richard" said: "I am a Vodafone pay monthly customer paying £42 a month for 900 minutes, unlimited texts [...]